14 Inventions Our Grandparents Expected to See by Now That Didn’t Materialize
#1 Flying Cars
Remember when everyone thought we’d all be driving around in flying cars by now? Well, back in 1951, Popular Mechanics predicted that by the year 2000, we’d all be enjoying the luxury of airborne commuting. Imagine the traffic jams in the sky!
In the 1960s, people envisioned a future where we’d all have robot servants to do our bidding. While we do have some pretty cool robots around, they’re still pretty far from being our personal butlers.
The Jetsons, a popular cartoon show from the 1960s, featured characters zooming around on personal jetpacks. As cool as it would be to zoom around in a jetpack, it seems like this one is still a pipe dream. Maybe our grandkids will have these?
The 1950s saw a surge of interest in teleportation, with many predicting it would become a reality in the future. It’s safe to say we’re not going to be teleporting anytime soon, unless you count teleporting through Zoom meetings.
H.G. Wells’ book, The Time Machine, first published in 1895, is still inspiring people to dream of traveling through time. Despite what the movies may have us believe, we still haven’t figured out how to travel through time.
Back to the Future II, released in 1989, showed characters riding around on hoverboards, sparking interest in this futuristic technology. Okay, so we technically have hoverboards now, but they’re not quite what people in the past had in mind. (Still hoping this one comes true soon, though!)